Trump's Legal Problems Might Outlast Robert Mueller's Investigation

The special prosecutor is handing off various deep dives into the bottomless lagoon of slime and corruption that is this administration*.

By
Charles P. Pierce

Feb 5, 2019

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After the end of business on Monday night, because the business of federal prosecutors in this particular political moment never really ends, the good folks in the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York dropped the big one. From the Washington Post:

A wide-ranging subpoena served on the inaugural committee Monday seeks an array of documents, including all information related to inaugural donors, vendors, contractors, bank accounts of the inaugural committee and any information related to foreign contributors to the committee, according to a copy reviewed by The Washington Post. Only U.S. citizens and legal residents can legally donate to a committee established to finance presidential inaugural festivities.

“We have just received a subpoena for documents. While we are still reviewing the subpoena, it is our intention to cooperate with the inquiry,” a spokesman for the committee said in a statement. The subpoena — issued by the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York — indicates that prosecutors are investigating crimes related to conspiracy to defraud the United States, mail fraud, false statements, wire fraud and money laundering.

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As the invaluable Marcy Wheeler has been saying for months, Robert Mueller is handing off various deep dives into the bottomless lagoon of slime and corruption that is this administration* as well as conducting his own investigations. The folks in the Southern District there at the very least clearly believe that the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States to have been an elaborate mechanism for laundering all sorts of money from all sorts of people.

The inauguration itself was a completely strange affair. It was weird enough that Donald Trump was being sworn in as president*. His inaugural address was a third-rate script from a fourth-rate horror movie. But, beyond that, there was a sense that a powerful and foul undercurrent was running under all the festivities, that some sort of noxious fog was rising from beneath the marble steps and enfolding all the rich—and sparsely attended—ceremonies. There were too many strange, burly men in heavy overcoats. It looked and felt like the Apalachin Conference had convened in an ancient temple.

And now, here we are. The bills are all coming due. And it appears that the pursuit of the president* by the prosecutors of the Southern District may long outlast Robert Mueller's mandate. It is these people that may be the ones to plumb the corruption of the Trump organization all the way to the bottom of it, and to illuminate all the strands connecting it to the things we all hold in common that are being coined and sold by dishonest men.